Works just fine on an XP machine.

The holding down the page turn button, etc. is to force the upload of the second file you put on (the rooted 1.2). When you drop the 1.0 onto the main nook drive it will update automatically. The second file (1.2) needs to be dropped onto the SD card. Once you do, you have to force your nook to see that file and run it. To do this you shut it off completely, hold down the right side page turn button and restart the computer. You'll see the screen say that it's processing the update (or whatever verbiage it uses, I forget the exact phrase). Once you see that, let go of the button and pour yourself a drink. The next time the nook reboots it will be rooted.
At that point you can either boot to the traditional menu or the nook launcher menu. I perferred to make the nookLauncher my default but you can do whatever you would like. There are a few good videos a woman did about how to root and how to use nookLauncher. I believed they're posted on here. I would suggest watching them before you do it. I did and it made it incredibly easy.